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VICHY is famous for two things: its World War II puppet government under Marshal Pétain, and its curative sulphurous springs, which attract thousands of ageing and ailing visitors, or curistes, every year. There's no mention of Pétain's government in town, but the fact that Vichy is one of France's foremost spa resorts colours everything you see here. The town is almost entirely devoted to catering for its largely elderly, genteel and rich population, which swells several-fold in summer; they come here to drink the water, wallow in it, inhale its steam or be sprayed with it. An attempt is now being made to rejuvenate the image of Vichy by appealing to a younger, more fitness-conscious generation.
The Town
All of this makes Vichy seem unappealing, and yet it has a certain element of charm. There's a real fin-de-siècle atmosphere about the place and a curious fascination in its continuing function. The town revolves around the Parc des Sources, a stately tree-shaded park that takes up most of the centre. At its north end stands the Hall des Sources , an enormous iron-framed greenhouse in which people sit and chat or read newspapers, while from a large tiled stand in the middle the various waters emerge from their spouts, beside the just-visible remains of the Roman establishment. The curistes line up to get their prescribed cupful, and for a small fee you can join them. The Célestins is the only one of the springs that is bottled and widely drunk: if you're into a taste experience, try the remaining five. They are progressively more sulphurous and foul, with the Source de l'Hôpital, which has its own circular building at the far end of the park, an almost unbelievably nasty creation. Each of the springs is prescribed for a different ailment and the tradition is that, apart from the Célestins, they must all be drunk on the spot to be efficacious - a dubious but effective way of drawing in the crowds.
Although all the springs technically belong to the nation and treatment is partially funded by the state, they are in fact run privately for profit by the Compagnie Fermière, first created in the nineteenth century to prepare for a visit by the Emperor Napoléon III. The Compagnie not only has a monopoly on selling the waters but also runs the casino and numerous hotels - even the chairs conveniently dotted around the Parc des Sources are owned by it.
Directly behind the Hall des Sources, on the leafy Esplanade Napoléon III (the emperor's interest in the waters brought Vichy to public notice in the mid-nineteenth century), is the enormous, Byzantine-style Grand Établissement Thermal , the former thermal baths, decorated with Moorish arches, gold-and-blue domes and blue ceramic panels of voluptuous mermaids. All that remains inside of the original baths is the grand entrance hall, with its fountain and two beautiful murals, La Bain and La Source, painted by Osberd in 1903. The arcades leading off either side of the hall, once the site of gyms and treatment rooms, now house expensive boutiques.
To provide distraction for the curistes, a grand casino and opera house were built at the southern end of the Parc des Sources. From May to September the opera house is the venue for regular concerts and opera productions, while lighter music oom-pahs out from the open-air bandstand in the park behind it.
After the waters, Vichy's curiosities are limited. There is pleasant, wooded riverside in the Parc de l’Allier, also created for Napoléon III. And, not far from here, the old town boasts the strange church of St-Blaise, actually two churches in one, with a 1930s Baroque structure built onto the original Romanesque one - an effect that sounds hideous but is rather imaginative. Inside, another Auvergne Black Virgin, Notre-Dame-des-Malades, stands surrounded by plaques offered by the grateful healed who stacked their odds with both her and the sulphur. |
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